NASA has announced its plan for theArtemis III mission , let in that it is scheduled for 2025 . If everything goes well it will see the restitution of humankind to the surface of the Moon for the first time in over 50 years . The location of the planned Moon landing place is somewhere that humans have never explored before : the lunar South Pole .
Four astronauts will be sent on this delegacy . They will launch on top of the massiveSpace Launch System ( SLS)in theOrion condensation . The first ocean trip for both of these was only just a few weeks ago withArtemis Iand current information designate that both performed extremely well . Hunter will take the cosmonaut to a particular lunar orbit : the Near - Rectilinear Halo Orbit ( NRHO ) . This special celestial path around the Moon allows it to be invariably in contact with Earth and will one day shortly be thelocation of the Lunar Gateway , a new space station that will provide a base for Moon ( and possibly Mars ) slip .
A crucial component of the success of the foreign mission is SpaceX ’s Starship . NASA awarded the contract for a lunar lander to Elon Musk ’s company a few years ago , which led to alegal battlebetween SpaceX and Jeff Bezos ’ Blue Origin . SpaceX will have to meet the high standard required by NASA and it is expected to conduct an uncrewed test on the open of the Moon before it can be used for Artemis III .
This is all the steps for Artemis III to bring humans to the Moon and back. Image Credit: NASA
So far , Starship has not conducted any orbital trial but this is likely to happen inthe next few months , once the Federal Aviation Administration ’s concern related to miss environmental requirements for SpaceX ’s Starbase have been complete .
Starship will trip from Earth in a unlike mode . It will launch and first rendezvous with an orbital fuel depot that will give it enough fuel to get to the Moon and then bring the cosmonaut to and from the Moon . Orion and Starship will meet in the NRHO . Two astronauts will then transpose to spaceship and land on the Moon .
The lunar South Pole will look very different to the equatorial region visited by the Apollo astronauts . The Sun will be down in the mouth on the celestial horizon , so the geographic expedition will be aided by headlight and young , more mobile Earth’s surface wooing that are being designed by Axiom Space . Another deviation between Artemis ’s lunar geographic expedition and Apollo ’s is that the succeeding mission will expend multiple day on the surface of the Moon . Those days will be used to collect samples , survey geology , and more .
After the brief sojourn on the Moon , Starship will pilot back to Orion . The four astronauts will be reunited and they will begin the journey back home before landing in the Pacific . But before we get to Artemis III , Artemis II will have to fly . This will be the first crewed mission of the Artemis programme and it is expect to establish in May 2024 .
